Resources by Topic:

Each October, individuals and organizations nationwide work together to raise awareness of bullying during National Bullying Prevention Month, an initiative of the PACER Center. Whether you are an educator, education leader, parent, or other community member, you can take action to prevent bullying and harassment by fostering a culture of caring and respect in your school, home, and community. Use the resources below to support your efforts. In addition, consider participating in Edutopia's community to share your own insights and resources about bullying prevention.

Resources for Educators

Take a look at the infographic "Bullying: What You Need to Know," courtesy of StopBullying.gov, a U.S. government website, for information about some of the statistics behind bullying and impacts on children. As this video about a study from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) demonstrates, the effects of bullying are serious and linger well into adulthood.

The resources from StopBullying.gov address detection, preventive strategies, and effective responses. How do you know if a child is being bullied? Keep an eye out for these warning signs. Need to know what actions to take? Review these effective responses to bullying and prevention strategies. "Bullying: A Module for Teachers," from The American Psychological Association, includes a useful tip sheet, "Myths and Facts about Bullying," that addresses beliefs about school bullying not supported by current research.

Bullying Prevention Curriculum

Visit the websites below to find videos, activities, and lesson plans you can use in the classroom:

For more ideas on addressing issues of diversity and inclusion, join the conversation in Edutopia's community. The conversation "Supporting LGBT Students in Your School" is one place to start. Also see these posts on Edutopia:

Suicide Prevention

"Suicide and Bullying," an issue brief from the Suicide Prevention Resource Center (SPRC), discusses the relationship between bullying and suicide among children and adolescents, including recommendations, with a special focus on LGBT youth. Initiatives like The Trevor Project focus on crisis and suicide prevention among kids in the high-risk LGBT student population. All teachers should review the Trevor Project's list of warning signs.

The Great Kindness Challenge is a wonderful bully-prevention tool and we are slated to have 2,000,000 students enrolled THIS YEAR (2014)www.GreatKindnessChallenge.org

About the program:
The Great Kindness Challenge is one school week devoted to performing as many acts of kindness as possible, choosing from our checklist of 50 suggestions. The next Great Kindness Challenge takes place on January 26-30, 2015, and you can join the over 500,000 students that participated last year. The GKC has the power to increase empathy, tolerance, and compassion for all students from kindergarten through high school.

Imagine students complimenting each other, reaching out to a lonely child, picking up trash, surprising friends with happy notes in their backpacks, thanking their teachers creatively, and eating lunch with a new group of friends. These kind acts and more will happen in schools across all 50 states during the 4th Annual Great Kindness Challenge ! Schools complement and enhance the GKC week with kindness rallies, anti-bullying essay contests, kindness-themed spirit days, the GKC theme song (Kind-Hearted Hand), and Kindness Stations at recess to practice and reinforce the idea that Kindness Matters! (All ideas and content available in our free Toolkit!)

What does my school have to do to enroll?
Enrolling is FREE and EASY: Just fill out our Registration Form on our website!http://greatkindnesschallenge.org/
You will then be prompted to download the checklist and also be given our FREE toolkit! Place the Great Kindness Challenge on your school calendar and website for 2015.

What an amazing resource. I can't wait to share this article and the resources along with the individual responses here. Sometimes I feel, as a 'student' teacher working on my credential (in my late 50's) that I am in it alone. But I'm not. In my prior career, I spent a great deal of time on this and now I see many of you are fighting along side me. Amazing. And thank you.

School systems have policies adopted by the Board of Education that defines bullying and detail the district's official response when and should it happen, but most are written in legalese and transferred verbatim into student handbooks. The translation and how that's applied in a school system has to be real and authentic. Lots of great tools on how to do that are included herein. Administrators, counselors, teachers and students can do a lot together to create an atmosphere where it is understood bullying is not only not tolerated, but a place of protection where response to the threatening behavior is swift.

Surveys are a great tool for taking the pulse of what's in play and how students (and parents) feel about the safety / sense of belonging in the daily environment. Children need a place to turn when and if they need help. Their voices need to be heard so they will not continue to feel threatened or scared. Anonymous hotlines can help contribute to a sense of safety. http://www.eschoolview.com/School-Instant-Connect-Alert-System.aspx

This is an incredible list of helpful resources! As a past educator I, like all of us, understand what bullying does to those on the receiving end. Putting a stop to bullying is truly important for making education more successful! I would just like to add a resource which I have found helpful. They are called IBPA or the International Bullying Prevention Association (ibpaworld.org) A non-profit they offer a host of helpful resources as well as an annual conference as well. Thanks again!